Francbising

ml

-/1 Match

the words from the text with their correspondng a a reservaton

definitions.

1. a challenge (line 3)

One day in
Three years aga, Vanessa Stein and her husband Tom took up "the fast [ood chalJenge: t~ bought the fTai1CfiiS'efr a 5 McDonald's restaurant near Leeds.
1

illy

life

2 malntenance (line 33) 3 a booking (line 54) 4 a report (line SS) 5 to 'tackle (line 65) 6

b a list of employees and the wages they are paid c work involving written or printed documents d to review and nclude recent changes e a piece of writing giving information partcular subject f to pay special atterition in good condition containing information g a difficult but exciting thing to do h keeping equprnent to dea! with written documents about the past on a

EARLY ORNING always an eflorUor M is me. The alarm goes off at 6.30 a.m. and then I have 20 minutes' 'thinking time' to make some mentalli>.!s bejore I get 10 up. 1 live by lists, actually - t's the best way to keep things organised. Recently I've been arrivinq at our McDonald's restaurant arcund 8.30 a.m. I've mastered the computerised accounts 15 now so I'm training one of our flocr managers to help me with the~-a-diiiiiisiTation. Eventually this shou!d give me more time~ other areas of the business such as 20 interviewing staff Our restaurant is in a retail park arcund five miles outside teeds. Since we bought the franchise in 1995, weve already expanded the seating and now 25 we're looki" to expand the restaurant itsel. e ave to con orm to the McDonald's sta;;ctards (quality, service, cleanllness and value) of course, but the restaurant is actually our own business. 30 We dlrectly employ some 75 staff, order and pay 10' supplles (from 'prejerred suppliers '), take care ol any maintenance or refurbishment, arrange local marketing, and so on. Arcund a 35 quaner of ali McDonald's 800 UK restaurants are franchised. Buying this franchise was a big move for us. Tom (my husband) had to do nine months' tralning bejore we could 40 even be consideled for a [ranchise. It paid oti though, and we are delighted with this place - it boasts" what was the first Drive-Thruin Yorkshire!- and the surrounding ccuntryslde is truly 45 beautful.
University

By 9.30 a.m. I'm ready for a Bacon & Egg McMuffinand a cup of tea. 1'11 have a quick chat with cur regular breakfast customers before open ing the post. This 50 brings invoice0.9_m suppliers, marketing and trainlng information from McDonald's (they run the trainlng courses but we pay jor CUr staff to attend), bookings for partles. or perhaps 55 the monthly report [rom the 'Myslery Oiner'. Myslery Dinersmake monthly checks on every restaurant and Drive-Thru in the country. Aliaspects are assessed60 food quality and presentati.m:-~- atmosphere, quality and speed of service, restaurant cleanliness and so on. staff are often commended by name, so I pass the news on to them and 65 make sure any problems are tackled. We're currently eighth in the UK league which is pretty good. 'Ile have an ongoing dialogue with McDonald's. Afield consultant visits us 70 every two or three weeks, and there are regular meetings with other [ranchisees to share ldeas and experience. Much of my morning is spent upd.\ing computer records. Tax ojfice 7S queries. trainlnq recoraS,"payroll, etc, have to be organised. 2,talf'iiil'iover vartes but we can sometimes lose our casual werkers when they go to university or decide to go travelling. 80 There are McDonald's ali over the world now, so their training here really can open distant doors. The lunchtime rush" starts arcund noon. On the rare occaslons that we're 85 short staffed (e.q. fiu season), ,'II ~ in and serve custcmers (memories of my Waitressing days at universiyl). l've even been known to cook [ries when necessaty. Aswith any small business, 90 one has to be flexible but I think t's also important to focus your energies where they are most effective. Forme, this is behind the scenes admin work.

to update

(line 74)

7 records (line 74) 8 a payroll (line 7S) 9 to focus (line 91) 10 paperwork
(line 98)

-'>

2: Complete the followlng questonnare usng words from Vocabulary Ch ange the form of the words where necessary,

1.

Vanessa Stein a/~d "er second restaurant

95

100

105

110

115

120

(under construaion) My own lunch is a salad or chicken sandwich. By this time, my office looks like a bomb site" to the untralned eye. t've uwa:fly-dlVIiledthe masses of paperwork into piles ready to tackle them in priority order. Il\iVno ~round 3 p.m. to collect my two sons from school $0 I generally end up taking work home. ,'II [inish it in the kitchen, listening to Glenn Milleror the Moody Blues,while aho supervising the chlldren's homework, music practice or whatever. If i'm doing the end-of-month figures, Igenerally have to work into the early hours. otherwlse t'm inbed any time after 10 p.m. I always have three or four books on the go, Walter scott or Jane Austen for example, and usually one non-fiction - maybe an autobiography or a political work. I'm glad to say Iorn's snorinq" was lasered away last summer, so now I can look [orward to some undisturb~sleep bejore another busy day at the restaurant. NowI think of it, 1 used to have cravings for McDonald's when 1 was preqnant. It must have beeri a premonition!

or Warwick

Network

.+1 .
36.

~ 'to rust: a busy perloda feature boost: to have as 'o

----

'Q bomb site: aplace where a bamb has exploded 'to snore: to breathe noisllywhen sleeping

3 In pars, interview her time better.

each other. Suggest how your partner

could manage

his or 37

I
1f"eunit1fQur~ it , ,,' '-'df Vocabulary development:
suffixes
Franchisinq II
Look at the way these nouns are forrned. noun assessment effectiveness regularity administration stem assess (verb) effective (adjective) regular (adj) administer (verb)

Used to do; be used to doing

+ ness + ity + ation

Look at the two photos of the sa me person.

Say the nouns and stems. Which nouns have the same main stress as their stem? Which nouns have a different main stress? 2 Using a dictionary, check that you understand the meaning of the words below. Put the words into the correct columns in the table. In which ones do es the stress change? confidential organise disagree -ment willing similar careless -ness prepare present popular -ity
"O<'IfL<kt\l:.Lo.I

,Jr
.. ~"
~~~

require invest aware -ation

A He used to go to school in a 511111 vii/age. Complete the rules wth used to + lnfinitivc

B He's used to making

presentations. or be used 10 + -ing, regularlyor for a long

-cc

______ is used for things that happened time in the past but which no Ionger happen.

is used when talking about something and no Ionger strange . ~ For more Information page 166.

which is familiar

on used to do and be used to doing, tum to

Language Focus
Adverbs
Look at these adverbs expressing time from the text on page 36. (line 6) (line 12) (line 17) (line 24) (line 66) (line 77) (line 87) definitions. ~ Early moming is always an effort for me. Recentiy I've been artiving around 8.30 a.m. Eventually this should give me more time. expanded the seating. eighth in the UK league. lose our casual workers. We've already Wc're currentiy We can somettmes I've usually

Practlce

1 Cornplete the following sentences verb in brackets wi th the approprlate

a She b She c She d She e Her husband
~d

about Vanessa Stein by combining form of used to or be used to.

the

!:.o eP (go) to university. (help) her children wth their homework. (chat) wth regular customrs. (attend) meetings with other McDonald's franchisees. (snore).

divided the masses of paperwotk.

f She (work) as a watress at university. g The restaurant _._. (have) fewer seats.
II She

Match the adverbs to thelr correspondlng 1 not long ago 2 after a long time 3 4 5 6 7 by or betore now at the present time on some occasions but not ali on most occasions or in most situations alI the time

(take) work to do at home.

Write a short description of a typicaI day in your life, usng used to, be used to and time adverbs. Try to show now your life today is dfferent to what it was before.

~~ For more infonnation

on adverbs and frequency,

tum to page 165.

...
38 39